2024 Sun Aug 18

I. Theme –   Living the Abundant life -Connecting to God as source of wisdom, energy, and adventure.

“The Wedding Feast” -Jan Breughel the Elder (undated, died in 1625)

The lectionary readings are here  or individually:

Old Testament – Proverbs 9:1-6
Psalm – Psalm 34:9-14
Epistle –Ephesians 5:15-20
Gospel – John 6:51-58

Today’s readings continue the theme of God’s sustenance with the emphasis on the eternal consequences. In Proverbs  Wisdom gives a feast to which all are invited. Paul encourages Christians to be filled with God’s Spirit. Jesus promises that all who eat his flesh will live forever.

Jesus’ words about eating his flesh and drinking his blood in the Gospel shocked even his disciples. Early in the Old Testament, blood was identified with life and deemed sacred because God is the source of life. The spilling of human blood was considered an outrage against God.

Eating flesh containing blood was prohibited in the Pentateuch. The penalty for doing so was expulsion from God’s people. Blood was removed from use as food and reserved for sacramental purposes. In the rites of atonement, blood symbolized the yielding up of the worshiper’s life to God and the atoning communion of worshipers with God.

But in John’s gospel, Jesus tells the people, enigmatically, that he is the fulfillment of this sacrificial atonement. In the light of the age-long prohibition against eating flesh containing blood, his words, heard in a literal sense, were quite offensive. But they brought a promise of eternal life.

Not only the atonement, finished on the cross, but also the living instrument of its communication—the eucharist—transcends our ability to understand. In some unseen, incomprehensible way, the energy of redeeming love is transmitted, and we receive food for eternal life. By faith, we allow Christ’s life to penetrate our being and nourish our life. God’s own life comes to us through the natural and temporal elements of bread and wine, so that we, natural and temporal creatures, may become vehicles of God’s supernatural grace.  We participate in terms of a radical embrace of God’s vision so that it becomes the center of our self-understanding. God is in us, just as we are in God.

Eating and drinking are of symbolic significance in most religions, especially in Christianity. Natural life depends on our giving and taking these necessities. The eucharist reminds us of the self-offering of our lord and our dependence on him for our soul’s life. It provides us with a continuous supernatural apprehension of eternity. It suffuses our little lives with the creative spirit of Christ and fits us for our vocation to transform the world.

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Reference – Gospel reading for Aug. 18

The Aug 11 Gospel from John contains a preview of Aug 18.  “Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

This week we start with the phrase. “Jesus said, ‘I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

The keywords are “living bread that came down from heaven” and “flesh”. The former was not included at the end of Aug 11.

The Presbyterian Outlook publication for  Aug 18 gets at the heart of the issues.

“This is not a simple proposition. How is Jesus living bread? What does it have to do with eternal life? How is this bread Jesus’ flesh, and are we indeed asked to eat it? It was clearly confusing to his hearers. They immediately dispute among themselves, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” (v. 52). And later in verse 60 on Aug 25, they say, ‘This teaching is difficult, who can accept it?'”

There are overtones with the Eucharist – “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you”. The other Gospels include the “Institution Narrative” at the Last Supper, where Jesus breaks bread and says, “This is my body given to you”. Luke 22:19 also includes the blessing of the bread during the Last Supper. John doesn’t do this but includes the first teachings about the Eucharist before the last Supper. Unlike the Synoptic Gospels, John does not include the moment of institution of the Lord’s Supper. In his upper room narrative, he focuses on foot washing.

John’s focus is not only on Jesus giving the bread as in the Euchairst but also on him being the bread. It is a focus on meaning as well as action.

From Presbyterian Outlook “For John, participation in Jesus’ life is a relationship of depth and intimacy. Jesus is the believer’s food, the required nourishment for a life far surpassing what we might consider a regular human life. It is not just about trusting in Jesus or doing what Jesus would do. It is about living within Jesus, having life from God as Jesus came from God.”

The word “abide” is a  common phrase such as “Abide in Me and I in you” John 15. John uses the word “abide” 24 times! You may relate it to participation.

“In this text, Jesus both gives the bread of life, and he is the bread of life. He is both giver and gift. This is his deepest identity in John’s Gospel. We, as believers, receive this gift, and participate in Jesus. Thus, we too become both gift and giver for others.”

Yes, as followers we have to abide, participate, live, and extend Jesus’ version of the Kingdom and share it with others. The benefit which John contrasts with their ancestors is eternal life. They didn’t get this from the Manna though it came down from heaven as does the “Bread of Life”. With Jesus – “But the one who eats this bread will live forever.”

Johnathan plays Jesus in “The Chosen.”

This is his full Speech at the National Eucharistic Congress which took place from July 17–21, 2024 in Indianapolis. The Congress was a Catholic event “a gathering of clergy, religious, and laity to bear witness to the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.”

His work on filming the series leads to the Gospel from John at 8:43. He will be speaking from John 6:51-58 which will be heard this week (Aug. 18, 2024).